Burma: No ethnic autonomy under military dominated sham parliament

Burma has already come
to an end holding its namesake polls in last November. The elections were regarded
as the ugliest vote rigging show of the country's history. According to Burmese
junta's 2008 constitution, the incoming legislative body will convene its first
session 90 days after the Election Day (7 November, 2010) to elect a president
and two vice presidents and to form a new government. So, the new parliamentary
session seems to be held in last week of this January as many political
analysts have speculated.

Burma celebrated its 63rd
anniversary of independence on 4th January, 2011. Burma gained its
independence from Britain on 4 January, 1948. But the country experienced with
democracy until 1962, when the military seized power to which it has since
clung.

The current military junta
has emerged in 1988 after violently suppressing mass pro-democracy protests. It
held a general election in 1990, but refused to recognize the results after a
landslide victory by the National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Aung San
Suu Kyi, who has just released from house-arrest recently. She was under
detention for more than a decade and a half and freed on 13 November, 2010.

Some ethnic Shan leaders
believe that the then Shan's leadership decision to depart the British
colonialism on 7th February 1947 had paved the way to Burma's Independence
sunshine on 4 January 1948. The decision was taken by the Shan States Council,
comprising the ruling princes and people's representatives of Shan States, as
Shan State was known then, at the Panglong Conference from 3 to 12 February
1947.

So, up to this day, Shan
community believe they deserve autonomy as a free people. However, Burmese
military regime has no attitude to allowing equal status to the ethnic
nationalities of Burma including the Shans. The major disagreement between
junta and the opposition NLD led by Aung San Suu Kyi is no other than to give
equal category to all ethnic groups.

Latest political
scenario is still blurred although a multi-party general election on 7 November
has been done. In accordance with the figures pronounced by Union Election
Commission (UEC), a total of 1,148 candidates representing political parties
and 6 independent candidates were elected as parliamentary representatives at
three levels.

The Union Solidarity
and Development Party (USDP), led by Prime Minister Thein Sein, won the
majority of 882 parliamentary seats or 76.43 percent out of the total1, 154 seats.
The USDP is followed by the National Unity Party (NUP) with 64 seats, Shan
Nationalities Democratic Party (SNDP) with 57 seats, Rakhine Nationalities
Development Party with 35 seats, National Democratic Force (NDF) and the All
Mon Region Democracy Party (AMRDP) each with 16 at three levels of parliament.

Meanwhile, the SNDP Chairman
Sai Aik Paung told a party conference in Taunggyi in mid-December that the
party has achieved extraordinary unity among ethnic Shan nationals. The December 13-15 conference set up about
180 members, including 57 winning candidates from the November 7 election, as
said by the Myanmar Times December 20 - 26, 2010 Issue.

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The Shan
Nationalities Democratic Party won 57 of the 156 seats and the third-largest
number of candidates in national and regional legislatures, after the USDP.

Simultaneously, the
three ceasefire armed groups have challenged Burma Army that pressured them to
transform into Border Guard Forces (BGFs). For that reason, the groups have come
around declining BGF plan in order to avoid Burmese junta's oppressive
strategies. The UWSA, the NDAA, and the
Shan State Army-North are along with the other armed ethnic groups which are
defying the military regime's demands on them to join its Border Guard Force
(BGF). Actually, the junta's BGF program intended to win over the ceasefire
groups through laying down their arms.

Coincidentally, the
United Wa State Army (UWSA)'s political wing United Wa State Party (UWSP) has
drawn another contradict proposal which includes a point to demand for a state
with the Right of Self Determination from the new government, quoting UWSP sources
Shan Herald Agency for News said.

The UWSP's new
proposal which is to be presented to the new parliamentary government expected
to be held early 2011. In the proposal, UWSP says that their armed force will
remain in the Wa State to defend their independence. Although they will not
secede from the Union, they will steadfastly demand for a state with the Right
of Self Determination from the upcoming government, upholding a policy of
non-alignment and neutrality.

The said proposal was
drawn at the UWSP's 5th annual district level party congress which is being
held in Mongmai, 170 km north of its main base Panghsang from 20 to 29
December. According to a Wa officer, after the December Congress, the UWSP
leading party committee will send its delegation to talk with the new
government on the basis of 'Opposition to War' and 'Work for Peace
and Development' principle.

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Subsequently, General
meeting of the 3rd Central Standing Committee (CSC) of the 14th KNU Congress
was fruitfully held from December 14 to 19, 2010, according to the Karen
National Union (Supreme Headquarters) source. KNU adopted the four guiding
principles delineated by the late heroic leader Saw Ba U Gyi. The four
principles are "Surrender is out of the question", "We shall retain our arms",
"Recognition of Karen State must be complete" and "We shall decide our own
political destiny."

KNU says in its
statement dated 23 December 2010: "As the parliament and government that would
come into being according to the SPDC Road Map were for realization of the 2008
Constitution, the meeting adopted the view that instead of resolving the
problems faced by Burma, it would create more insecurity and conflicts,
especially in the political and military fields."

According to SPDC's 2008
constitution, the incoming legislative body will convene its first session 90
days after the election to elect a president and two vice presidents and to
form a new government.

Zin Linn was born on February 9, 1946 in a small town in Mandalay Division. He began writing poems in 1960 and received a B.A (Philosophy) in 1976.
He became an activist in the High School Union after the students' massacre on 7th July 1962. (more...)